Top officials in Bowling Green and Warren County today demanded to know the names and financial backers of longtime opponents of the Kentucky TriModal Transpark, responding in part to a renewed legal effort by two opposition groups to halt the industrial project for more environmental study.

About 40 people, mostly employees of the city, county or the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, gathered on the Warren County Courthouse steps to hear Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon, Mayor Elaine Walker and Jim Hizer, who is president of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce and the Inter-Modal Transportation Authority, issue their call for public disclosure.

The groups Warren County Citizens for Managed Growth and Karst Environmental Education and Protection have opposed the industrial development for years, filing a dozen court actions. All of those suits have been defeated in court after court, but defending against them has cost area governments - and thus local taxpayers - almost $1 million in legal fees, according to Buchanon, Walker and Hizer.

Opponents have accused transpark developers of secrecy, though all ITA meetings have been open except specific litigation and negotiations for property or business, Walker said.

In contrast, the opposing groups have never completely revealed who's behind them, she said.

“What I question is, where are their decisions being made, and who is supplying the money?” Walker said.

Buchanon said the groups had been asked for a list of members several times, but had responded that their membership was informal, and that they didn't have to release a roster.

“They are the ones in the cloak of darkness,” he said. “They're hiding themselves behind environmental policy, when it's clear that they're not interested in the environment at all.”

Buchanon said that he knows of at least one local man apparently funding opponents' lawsuits, but refused to name that person. By name, he identified Bowling Green resident Jim Duffer and Oakland resident Gayla Cissell, and alluded to three others: cave researcher and Ohio resident Roger Brucker, Louisville attorney Leslie Barras and Lexington attorney Hank Graddy.

“I have no intention of releasing numbers or names,” said Duffer, president of Warren County Citizens for Managed Growth.

He said this morning that there are many local people who oppose the transpark, but that they won't put their names forward for fear of retaliation from local officials.

Graddy, for several years the primary attorney for transpark opponents, said today that he has never heard any previous requests for membership lists or funding sources.

The groups have not gotten any written request for those from local officials, Graddy said; he was unsure if they would comply, if formally asked.

“We will certainly make available everything they are entitled to, but we're not going to let them invade our privacy,” Graddy said.

Walker said that it appears the primary funding for anti-transpark litigation is coming from people who don't live anywhere near this area, and that continued lawsuits have thrown a cloud over local job-recruitment efforts.

Duffer said that many of those supporting the opponents' legal fight are indeed from outside the area, but have a strong concern for the environment, such as interest in nearby Mammoth Cave National Park.

“We receive our funds from all across the U.S., and maybe even a little bit from Europe,” he said.

Duffer said he has no estimate of how much opponents have spent on litigation over the past decade.

“I don't really keep track of that,” he said.

The online incorporation records maintained by Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson show Karst Environmental Education and Protection as a nonprofit corporation organized in January 2004. Its address is a UPS Store in Louisville, but bears Barras' name.

Its most recent annual report, filed June 8, lists Barras as president, Brucker and Hilary Lambert as officers, and those three plus Thomas Barr as directors.

The posted information lists those four plus Thomas Poulson as current directors, and lists them all plus John Blubaugh as directors when KEEP was organized.

Warren County Citizens for Managed Growth was organized in October 2002 by Duffer and Joey Roberts, with Gail Ballance, Guy Briggs, Cissell, June Hendrick and Kaye Parsley also listed as initial directors, according to state records.

In its June 26 annual report, Duffer is listed as president, with Carolyn Harmon and Cissell the only listed directors. A Bowling Green post office box is its address.

That group is described as the assumed name for Citizens for Managed Growth, a nonprofit organized in September 2001 by Duffer and Roberts, with Ballance, Briggs, Cissell, Hendrick and Parsley also listed as initial directors.

Its office is listed as Duffer's house. Duffer is listed as current president, with Cissell and Harmon also listed as officers, and those three as the only directors.

Buchanon said that transpark development has always been done with great concern for the environment, including a state-of-the-art stormwater management system.

“Let's be honest: It's not about the environment with these people,” he said. “It's a group of people who just want to stop everything, and send us back into the past.”

He denounced opponents as led by publicity hounds or outsiders who don't care about the local economy.

Walker said that opponents' calls for a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement seek something that the city and county just can't do; a formal EIS can only be triggered by federal agency action, she said.

One will be performed on the impact of a major connector road that will cross the transpark site, Walker said.

If the opposing groups were truly interested in protecting the environment, they would acknowledge their legal defeats and work with the transpark on environmental standards, since the industrial park is already in operation, she said.